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Denying the Darkness of the Human Condition in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s allegory, “Young Goodman Brown,” explores the consequences of denying the darker side of one’s own human condition. On the surface, it’s about a Puritan in seventeenth century Salem who loses faith in humanity after attending a black mass in the forest, and discovering that the pious townspeople are followers of the devil. But…
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Foucault on Self-Writing and the Hupomnemata
Towards the end of his life, French critical theorist Michel Foucault conducted several studies on the ascetic techniques of ethical self-formation used by Greek and Roman Stoics. In his essay “Self-Writing,” he explored the role of writing in the philosophical cultivation of self. He examined the use of hupomnemata, journals where individuals could record “extracts…
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Authenticity and Anxiety in Writing
There are many days when, despite having writing projects with clear goals and purposes, I’m at a loss of what to do. I seem to have lost my sense of purpose, or my belief in it, and I no longer feel the significance of my work. Thus I lose enthusiasm and drop my projects unfinished.…
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The Whale Belly 